Large infrastructure projects are ripe for complex and often debilitating disputes, and often involve parties from a variety of legal, social and cultural backgrounds. Failure to address such disputes early can have devastating impact on a PPP project, and therefore sophisticated dispute resolution mechanisms are generally adopted.
Parties to a PPP project generally prefer to submit any disputes that may arise to arbitration, because of its flexibility and greater ease of award execution,9 rather than to state courts. International arbitration benefits from sophisticated arbitrators, speed of process and international conventions on enforcement of international arbitration awards, such as the New York Convention,10 which require enforcement of international arbitration awards as if they were domestic awards, and do not allow the enforcing court to open up the award and make a qualitative assessment of its merits, except for a few specified reasons.
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9 Execution of arbitral awards is supported by a number of international treaties and conventions, in particular The United Nations Convention on the Enforcement of Arbitral Awards (1958) (the "New York Convention").
10 United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (1958).